National GetOutside Day

Today is National GetOutside Day. 

The weather has not been ideal here in Norfolk today, but have managed to get out between the showers and hoping the rain clears later for a photography trip to a nearby linseed field.

Climoji

Thanks to Stephen Schwab for passing through the information on the development of Climate Change emojis or Climojis.

These are emojis which can be added to the set of standard emojis, and are meant to represent aspects of Climate Change.

Students could be asked to consider what they are representing and why these images were chosen, and also to perhaps design some of their own...

Will the impact of climate change shape our quotidian experience in the future, and within decades, or even years, rather than 'the end of the century' as many predictions would have had it at the turn of this millennium...

Antarctic Winds Animation

Check out this amazing visualization of surface winds around Antarctica.#Roaring40s https://t.co/DGUjmwLRF7#geography #geoscience #geo #geographyteacher #GIS #geospatial #cartography #spatial #climate #antartica #weather #dataviz #science #education pic.twitter.com/LqODQSmv5A

— MapScaping (@MapScaping) September 28, 2019

Lovely 

Ark

Thursday this week saw the naming ceremony for the new British Antarctic Survey research ship, the Sir David Attenborough. It was a reminder that asking the public their opinion is a bad idea as it would have been called Boaty McBoatface if the public vote was actually followed through with.
I suggested Tom Crean for the name at the time.

We have been in discussions with British Antarctic Survey to get someone in to speak to the students, and this would be excellent with this renewed interest, and also to coincide with our unit on the Antarctic.

Simon Armitage, the new Poet Laureate, and a geography graduate no less, published a new poem on the same day. It recasts the ship as a modern day Ark... exploring the impacts of climatic change.
It can be read on Simon's own website page, as a PDF



Later that day, Simon then visited Jamie and the Encounter Edu team...

Fantastic to talk Arctic and climate change with the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, whose new poem was on @BBCr4today this morning. Here he is about to go full 3D with @encounteredu to see the @NERCscience Arctic station. @BAS_News @UKSINet #UKinArctic pic.twitter.com/213b8LQ4yl

— NERC Arctic Office (@Arctic_Office) September 26, 2019

Ark: copyright Simon Armitage 

Image: Copyright BAS Press Office.
https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/ship-is-named-with-royal-ceremony/1854_img_8009-jpg/

The Noun Project

I've been using the Noun Project this term with students to produce infographics. Text and simple images are apparently useful to help students remember because of the visual cue that they provide.
The Noun Project promises 'icons for everything' and these can be downloaded for free under CC license.

We've been using them to produce what we call a 'Little Book of Cold' - to explain why Antarctica is so cold. Icons can be downloaded with a free account, or customised.

The Iconathon is an extension of this, where designers get together to develop icons around a theme. The DISASTERS set is a good one to use, for example.

Climate Change Assembly

On Friday, the day of the Climate Strike, I led a whole school assembly at King's Ely Junior with my colleague Richard Oliver, the Head of Science.

Climate Change Assembly from GeoBlogs

We tried to give a message of hope, alongside the scientific aspects. I gave the 'global perspective', with a mention of the Climate Stripes of Ed Hawkins, Jim Hansen's warning to Congress in 1988 (the year when I got my first full time teaching jobs) and an apology for the last 30 years of carbon which are having an impact now. I also talked about Project Drawdown.

We showed the Thunberg / Monbiot video at the start.

We ended with a hymn, and a prayer written by Richard.

It's shared above in case anyone would find it useful in some way.

Thanks to Ben King for some of the elements of the assembly that he had shared previously.

Istanbul

“If the world was only one country, Istanbul would be its capital!”

Napoleon

Istanbul is a city I've been researching for an EDC city case study for a textbook that is coming out next year.
Istanbul is the largest city in Europe.

The Economist has published a useful resource on the
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2016/02/04/the-lure-of-the-city

This has involved a lot of research and chasing down contacts and other links with the city.
I think, and hope I've done it justice.
I also found some resources developed by a colleague.

This report can be downloaded, and is well worth reading to add particular detail.

ISMEP has produced a useful document too.
PDF download
https://www.ipkb.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ISMEP1_ISMEP_EN_240214.pdf


I like the final lines of the report.

"It is important to bear in mind that earthquake resistant schools will educate creative and powerful brains. The children who are going to build our future cannot be sacrificed to earthquakes."

The city's Historic Centre has been pedestrianised to help with the flow of tourists.



The MetroBus is a newish addition to the city's landscape: a subsidised transport system, which connects the Asian and European parts of the city.
There are lots of attractions to this service.

The Pedestrianization of Istanbul's Historic Peninsula - EMBARQ Turkey - 31 October 2013 from EMBARQ

More to come in a few month's time.

Image credit
Hagia Sophia by Lluisa Iborra from the Noun Project

Carbon City Zero

Carbon City Zero is a new Kickstarter project which is developed by the people behind 10:10 Climate Action. It's a card game which explores the idea of carbon reduction.

We have a copy ordered and it will be with us in a few months time.


Here's the description.

As a newly appointed city mayor you have been tasked with creating a carbon neutral city. It sounds easy, but you'll soon discover that your carbon budgets are hard to balance. Can you hit the zero carbon target before your rivals? The race to become the first zero carbon city is on...

Carbon City Zero is a deck-building game for 2-4 players, in which players develop a sustainable city by building factories, managing people, lobbying government ministers, and raising public awareness. Each player starts with an identical Draw Deck (and a Carbon Level of 40), buying additional cards from a shared Marketplace to create a more sustainable city. Balancing the need to generate income with reducing carbon, players can follow numerous paths to victory, creating synergies between Government, Industry, and Domestic sectors, while avoiding Snags and responding to Global Events. Once a player’s carbon level reaches zero, they win.

The game comes with 100 full-colour cards illustrated by Tony Pickering, a carbon tracker, a 13-page rulebook, and a glossary of the topics introduced.

Available to buy through a Kickstarter project (and also many times more than the 100% funded)
The video tells you a little more.

Shipping January 2020 apparently - although often these projects are pushed back.

Doodle

Thanks to Dan at Doodle for our new poster... one of a series he is doing as a little sub-project.

Wow what a response! I've put together a little booking page : ) Chose a date, write down (or email) your idea and receive a free a2 poster! Grab a design slot here! https://t.co/UcqApY6VWR

— doodle dan (@doodle_ed) August 19, 2019

Looking forward to the final A2 poster

Iain Stewart on Earthquakes

A repost of this video I will be using tomorrow...

Humber 2100 StoryMap

Thanks for the tipoff from Bob Lang to this ESRI StoryMap

The Humber estuary has some of the highest flood risk in the country and is vulnerable to rising seas - hence our work on a new strategy to 2100. Check out our interactive storyboard for everything on the Humber past, present and future https://t.co/1CYPCh5BjU #geographyteacher pic.twitter.com/17tkUUSZIL

— John Curtin (@johncurtinEA) September 9, 2019

Useful for all sorts of rivers / flooding / landscape management related topics...

Dollar Street

We all own stuff, and a quotidian act is generally adding to that by buying something new.
In order to do that we need an income (or a credit card) and our income generally determines the sort of stuff that we buy, and at what cost.

There are many TED talks which are of value to Geographers.

We've been using Dollar Street with Year 7 and Year 8 groups to explore the inequalities in access to food and other items in homes with differing levels of income.
The students have been fascinated by the images that Dollar Street offers, and we have been asking them to explore the 'stuff' that is owned by the families and whether there are thresholds to owning an object such as a washing machine (see the Hans Rosling video on this topic to see how important it is)



I've put together a resource for Geography teachers (and others) on how to use Dollar Street in the classroom.
It's not finished yet, but is a collaborative Google Drive document which will hopefully grow...
You're very welcome to add your own ideas to this document...
It's embedded below for your interest...



Following on from that, Anna from Gapminder gave a TED Talk a while ago, and that is now available to view here...

Pale Blue Dot

As used with Year 7 this week.

Pale Blue Dot from Chin Li Zhi on Vimeo.

Climate Change Teachers

A useful background to the opportunity to become accredited for your knowledge of Climate Change and lead curriculum making around this vital topic.

Banda Aceh

Year 9 were introduced to the Banda Aceh tsunami today....
This video shows the aftermath... some chilling parallels with some of the footage now coming out of the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian.


Tsunami from Sasa Petricic on Vimeo.

Extinction Rebellion Climate Change video

Would you use this video?
How would you use this video?
What messages do we need to be talking about with young people with regard to their involvement in this, and how they might be able to help?

Should we be panicking?